kieyra

Many aspects of the show were subtle, subtextual, and easy to interpret one way or another. The very light touch they used in writing is, in my opinion, one of the show's greatest strengths.

Are you me? I need a cut so bad, but the one time during the pandemic either one of us got sick, it was my husband who came down with a (minor) cold ... ~2 days after getting his hair cut. The salon we both use had been doing social distancing, having people wash their own hair before they came in, masking. But ... while they weren't drying people's hair with blowdryers, they were apparently (according to him) still using the blowdryers to clean/move hair on the floor (like a leafblower). (!) I haven't really kept up with "beauty salon transmission risk", but using something like that, which moves the air around without a good/HEPA style filter in the mix, just seemed really dumb. Plus, he is 100% telecommute and rarely leaves the house otherwise. Absolutely no judgement on salons in general, people who are getting their haircuts, etc., just a single anecdotal experience. My hair is thick and coarse and takes forever to cut, so I'm usually there for at least an hour. If I could get someone to cut my hair outdoors right now I would.

This was when I checked out. The trailers were misleading.

I’ve spent the last couple of years taking care of a lot of long standing dental issues. Everything from root planing to cavity replacement to a crown. ALWAYS numbing gel, no matter what location is being worked on, no matter if it’s just one shot. It’s usually a dental tech/assistant who places the swab with the topical anesthetic ahead of time.

@Stuffy mentioned Dailymotion, so I gave it a google: I’m not too familiar with this site. I think I’ve used it to watch some old Nigella Lawson shows.

I made a similar comment about casting in The Watch forum. They need to do high-quality casting first! Then adaptation of the dialogue, and worry less about the huge/fantastical stuff or relying on voiceover. It should be “who do we get for Vimes / Granny Weatherwax”, not “how can we best CG render the turtle and elephants flying through space?!”.

I always have a reflex to respond to this with "But Hogfather ...", but the fact of the matter is I've never watched one of the 'movie' style adaptations more than once. I still think it could be done (and I rant about this a little in one of the threads for The Watch), it's just that no one has cracked the code. I think, for example, someone could make a really good limited series for something like Equal Rites. But it would have to be the right person doing the adaptation. And not Neil Gaiman. (Also did not like Good Omens.)

I couldn't make myself click play on that mess. I just watched other posters' impressions here.

Someone made Act I in Animal Crossing.

As a result of me making the previous post, I went looking for a LoM/AtA thread here, didn't find one, and also found out that there may be another Life on Mars series. So I made a new thread over here. (I know I'm way in the minority of preferring AtA. 🙂)

You don't think actors, especially with ensemble casts and a stressful, crappy environment, compete for screen time and good storylines? You can't picture that?

As far as it being obvious that Ginny went to her dad's: I miss a lot of visual cues and I had no idea what she packed. I knew logically it was the only place she can really go, but what threw me was (IIRC) her voiceover at the end which says something dopey like "I just have to keep running!"

I struggle with this show because I don’t quite have a sufficient attention span for some of the artsy scenes, and the way the episodes are structured with this discordant rhythm (narrative, narrative, looooooong artsy scene, very quick piece that advances the story a tiny bit, flashback, etc) means I lose track of what’s real and what isn’t. Like, I didn’t realize until the specials that they never really got the lip tattoos. So I don’t know what else I think happened but didn’t really happen. I also feel like I’m being assaulted by the musical choices at times. You WILL listen to this song. But I really love Rue/Jules and believe in their relationship and love for each other, and it keeps pulling me along. I just don’t know where it’s going. The way the special ended (they see each other, they both start sobbing, Rue flees) kind of reminds me of Normal People. There’s a semi-addictive tension in watching two characters who desperately want to be with each other but also each keep getting in their own way. But it’s also supremely frustrating because I want to see more of them onscreen together.

That's how I feel about the three seasons of AtA (obviously Gene Hunt is a GIGANTIC part of that, and I like the other characters that got carried over from LoM (Ray and Christopher, and I know there were a few others who at least had one-off episodes). I know some people didn't care for the wrap-up, or thought it tied things up too neatly, but I loved it. ... just had a quick look and it doesn't look like Life on Mars is available to stream on the major US platforms, but it's on Britbox. It was on Netflix for a long time. AtA of course isn't anywhere. I don't know if it's because it wasn't as popular, or because of music licensing or something. (I mentioned the soundtrack: everyone drink!) And out of morbid curosity: Looks Life on Mars US isn't streaming anywhere. I think I made it about two episodes in to that one. I guess that was a classic example of a UK show being absolutely demolished in translation.

Taylor Swift fan army apparently tanking reviews because of tswift joke in the show. Taylor Swift calls out Netflix for joke about her dating life in Ginny & Georgia

Yeah, I think that was the overall reception from most people at the time (aside from the small group of posters I talked with on a very old TWOP thread). I think it might have been received a little better if it aired now, because it seems like 80s nostalgia is super popular at the moment. But maybe not. My spouse and I are this weird American Ashes to Ashes superfan couple. I bought him this for one of our anniversaries. (He has UK coworkers who tell him he's nuts for asserting that Ashes to Ashes was better than Life on Mars.) At the time Life on Mars (UK) first came out, I was already a fan of UK television, but I had a really hard time with the UK + 70s + police-specific lingo, and I hadn't yet discovered the magic of closed captioning. I was so lost the first time around. I missed a ton of references and colloquialisms in AtA as well. I wonder how they're going to do this--it seemed like at the end of AtA, several of the characters being referenced for a reunion had 'moved on'. In other words, if Ray / Dean Andrews comes back, then it seems like Alex / Keeley Hawes could too, but it's hard to know what they have in mind in terms of the show's mythology. (I'm not sure I ever understood what happened to Sam Tyler even after AtA.)

The old Life on Mars section didn't see much action, but there's some indication there will be a new (final?) series: Life on Mars creator confirms third and final series is in the works That said, this news came out not far into the pandemic (article is from April 2020). Hopefully it actually makes it into production. Here's another article from July.

I just listened to the audiobook version of The Trauma Cleaner. It's a biography of Sandra Pankhurst, an older Australian trans woman who now does crime scene/suicide/hoarder cleanup. Really fascinating, and Sandra's massively tragic backstory is woven in between different cleanup stories. The writer sometimes get a little more florid and introspective (about herself) than I guess I would want from a biography, but it's really moving (and hugely upsetting in many places). I think I originally heard Sandra Pankhurst interviewed on the 'Criminal' podcast. Can't remember how I stumbled across the book. ETA: Here's the podcast in question, it's pretty short and would probably give you an idea of your interest level.

Your skepticism is not unwarranted. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/movies/the-golden-globes-lawsuit-hollywood-foreign-press.html I think I really only paid attention to this cycle because of the love I have for the Queen's Gambit and Normal People, and their respective casts.

And while an ostensibly American show, The Queen's Gambit had a heavily UK-centric cast and crew, including Anya Taylor-Joy (she's 'from all over' but her default accent is English, not American). And IIRC none of it was even filmed in the US. (Er, none of these are complaints, I loved that show and its cast. Just continuing the observation.) I knew Queen's Gambit was going to smash that category, but I do feel bad for Daisy Edgar-Jones. Highly recommend Normal People (Hulu), an also-ran.

Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Cate Blanchett (“Mrs. America”) Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Normal People”) Shira Haas (“Unorthodox”) Nicole Kidman (“The Undoing”) Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”) (WINNER) Not a surprise here, but do feel bad for Daisy.

My attention has drifted from RPDR, but I checked this out. I wouldn’t have noticed the lipstick if I hadn’t read this thread first, but now I can’t unsee it. I wonder if there’s some story there? I stopped listening to the RuPaul/Michelle podcast because of the relentless marketing and product promotion, so my first thought is that it’ll be revealed to be some new special edition lipstick color from (I don’t know what makeup brand is hot right now, when I stopped listening to the podcast it was all about Anastasia), with X % going to Ru. None of the queens are jumping out at me, but that’s been true for so long. Still, maybe I’ll check out some earlier S13 episodes.

Here’s Russell T Davies being interview on my favorite TV biz podcast. (It’s a bit into the podcast so you might want to look for a time stamp in the show notes.) He talks about It’s a Sin quite a bit, but also Queer as Folk and Doctor Who. I’ve never heard him speak before—he goes about 90 miles an hour. You could tell the hosts (who are both longtime industry professionals) were bemused by their inability to get a word in edgewise.

Ashes to Ashes was a UK spinoff of Life on Mars that went for three seasons. I was meh on Life on Mars, but loved Ashes to Ashes and have rewatched it many times. I think it just arrived about a decade too early to get on the current 80s nostalgia train. Anyway, my point here is that I believe the show, over its 3 seasons, had the best use of early 80s music, especially UK-centric 80s pop and new wave, of any show I've ever seen (up to and including the recent It's a Sin). Too many good moments to list. I ended up making a ridiculously long Spotify playlist of the whole show. Naturally I can't find any good clips on YouTube, but the show was already niche (particularly in the US) and ended back in 2010. Edited to add: Wikipedia has a track listing.

Finally figured out that Antonia Gentry (Ginny) reminds me a bit of a young Billie Piper, especially when they have her in a lot of eye & brow makeup.